


so you wait for me in the sky

by rosesareredvioletsareblue



Category: The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare, The Wicked Powers Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Background Relationships, Family Bonding, Fluff, Lowercase, Post-Book 3: Queen of Air and Darkness, Spoilers for Book 3: Queen of Air and Darkness, Spoilers for Book Series: The Infernal Devices, cassie give him a happy ending or else, kit doesn't think anyone loves him and i cry every time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:07:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26255389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesareredvioletsareblue/pseuds/rosesareredvioletsareblue
Summary: if kit could be any disney princess, he'd choose ariel.partly for the mermaid tail, but mostly because an evil octopus with a god complex would take his voice away, and he could really use that right now.because if he calls tessa 'mom' one more time, he's going to have to flee the country. again.and he's running out of countries to flee to.(or: kit accidentally calls tessa 'mom' for the first time. panic ensues.)
Relationships: Jem Carstairs & Kit Rook, Jem Carstairs & Mina Carstairs & Tessa Gray & Kit Rook, Jem Carstairs/Tessa Gray, Mina Carstairs & Kit Rook, Tessa Gray & Kit Rook, Tessa Gray/Will Herondale, Tiberius Blackthorn/Kit Rook (background)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 178





	so you wait for me in the sky

**Author's Note:**

> so i saw something on instagram about kit accidentally calling tessa 'mom' for the first time and went 'holy shit that's an amazing idea' and wrote this immediately. 
> 
> also, this is in between qoaad and twp, so it's just kit and tessa. 
> 
> enjoy!

* * *

“hey mom?” kit asked, his face half in the cabinet. he was baking cookies with tessa, since the rain offset any outdoor activities for the day. thunder rolled through the sky above them, so loud that kit almost missed the unmistakable sound of glass shattering. he whirled, pulling out the herondale dagger he kept in his boot in one smooth motion, pointing it at the source of the sound. 

but it wasn’t a threat. it was tessa, a plate in dust around her feet, although her hands were still outstretched, like she thought the plate was still between them. she gaped at kit, her face white as a sheet. 

kit felt his brow furrow. “mom?” he asked again, looking at her curiously. then it hit him. 

_mom. i just called tessa ‘mom’._

kit felt like jumping out the window to see if he would get struck by lightning. 

tears were welling in tessa’s eyes. “what did you say?” she whispered, covering her mouth with her hand. 

“i’m sorry, tessa,” kit said hastily, backing up into the cabinet. his back slammed into the wood, but he couldn’t feel it over the rush going through his head. 

_i just called tessa mom, she doesn’t want to be my mom, why would she want to be stuck with me? please don’t make me leave, please don’t tell me to go._

“i’m sorry,” he repeated. terror welled up in him. of course, of _course,_ he’d ruin everything. it was only a matter of time before he fucked up these people who were kind enough to take him in after he destroyed any hope of reuniting with the blackthorns. 

of course he’d figure out a way to ruin the only real family he ever had. he didn’t even know why he called her mom. it just kind of felt right, the words ‘ _tessa gray is my mom’_ settling into kit’s heart like they belonged there. but he knew it wasn’t true. tessa was _mina’s_ mom, mina and james and lucie. not his. he would never be good enough to deserve a mom like tessa. 

_i’m unlovable. i’m sorry. i should’ve known better._

“kit-“ tessa began, but kit cut her off. he felt tears, hot and sticky, roll down his face, but he didn’t care. _couldn’t_ care, as his life dissolved around him.

“i didn’t mean it, i shouldn’t have said-“ he swallowed the word down, “that. i just, i love being here and i know i shouldn’t assume i’m part of your family, and i didn’t mean to make you feel like you _had_ to love me and-” his voice broke as tessa’s figure blurred in front of him, tears threatening to overtake him as rain pounded on the window. “please, _please_ don’t make me leave-“

kit was cut off sharply by tessa throwing her arms around him with a sob, ignoring the broken glass scattered across the floor. the dagger dropped out of his hand and clattered to the floor in his surprise. tessa was crying into his shoulder, her arms digging into him tightly as she held on. 

kit blinked. he wasn’t expecting that. 

“i’m sorry.” he repeated, only because he wasn’t sure what else to say. he didn’t know how to deal with crying people, especially people _he_ made cry. tessa let go of him only to cup his face gently with one hand. she looked up at him, her grey eyes red and puffy and somehow elated, the smile on her face wide and happier than kit had ever seen. 

“my kit.” she said, still smiling. with the pad of her thumb, she brushed the tears off kit’s face. “my love, you have nothing to apologize for.” 

“but i-“

“you are my son, kit herondale.” she said firmly, despite the tears still running down her face. “you are my son, and i am honored, _honored,_ that you consider me your mom.” 

“but you’re crying.” kit pointed out. tessa laughed, her smile somehow growing impossibly wider. 

“it’s been a very long time since someone called me mom.” she admitted, her eyes glowing. “it took me by surprise. _good_ surprise, these are happy tears. i can read the guilty look on your face.” 

kit winced. “oops.” 

tessa, _his mom,_ laughed, pulling kit in for another hug. this time, kit hugged her back just as tightly. 

“you are my son, kit.” she whispered into his ear. “you are a part of our family, and we’re never going to let you go.” 

kit felt his entire body relax, relief coursing through him. tessa continued, “you and mina and lucie and james gave and continue to give me heart attacks when you do something stupid-“

“we didn’t know that the glitter would explode like that.” kit muttered, his face heating up. that was last week’s project, when he and mina tried to bedazzle some of kit’s shirts and accidentally covered the entire craft room in grey glitter that just so happened to be the exact color of ty’s eyes. tessa snapped her fingers and the glitter disappeared as kit had his fifth “missing ty” breakdown of the day, sobbing in her arms.

“nope.” tessa replied, bringing kit back to the present. he could hear the smile in her voice. “but despite your _truly_ dumb ideas,” she smiled, pulling back so she could meet kit’s eyes, “you are the great loves of my life. i love your father, and i love will, but i love you and your siblings more than anything in the world.” thunder rumbled again, like raziel himself was emphasizing her point.

his siblings. kit bit back a laugh. he liked having siblings, even though two of them were ghosts that liked to make fun of him and the other was a baby that loved coloring portraits on the walls of kit’s bedroom. 

his father. kit thought of jem, his attempts to teach kit violin and being too nice to to tell kit that he has zero musical talent. jem, whispering softly to kit in mandarin while kit was wrapped in a hug. 

and his mom, who had lost almost everyone she loved and still was open to it, embracing her family despite knowing that one day, she was going to have to let him go. 

he had a family. an odd family, but a real one just the same. 

“i love you mom.” kit said finally. the words felt like a huge weight was lifted from his chest. 

tessa’s answering smile was brighter than the sun. 

“oh my kit.” she pressed a kiss to his hair. “i love you more.”

* * *


End file.
